City officials say the radio system that police and firefighters in Juneau use is outdated. It was only designed for an eight-year lifespan and that expired a decade ago.
Though the system still operates, police officers like Terry Allen say it’s hardly reliable anymore.
“It’s hit and miss,” he said during a patrol downtown last week. “You can be standing here and be clear as day, and then 15 feet away, you can’t hear anything but static.”
The city is asking voters for $12.7 million to spend on the project in this year’s local election. That money would be taken out as bond debt. It’s Proposition 1 on the ballot. But some critics say the city should have set aside money to pay for this a long time ago.
Allen has been a patrol officer with JPD for 24 years. He said having a working and reliable radio is crucial for his safety. Right now, the radios that officers and firefighters wear don’t work inside most buildings. And, they often hit dead zones near mountainsides and in patches scattered throughout the borough.
“If you’re in a situation where you need help and you can’t get back to your car, and you’re hoping somebody can get to you, waiting three minutes for dispatch to realize that you’re in trouble because they don’t even know you’re in trouble, and then trying to get somebody to you, that’s a long time,” he said.
Capital City Fire/Rescue Chief Rich Etheridge said for emergencies like house fires or the recent glacial outburst flooding, not being able to communicate to crews inside buildings can be deadly.
“I think it’s critical,” he said. “It’s the main component in every emergency situation in the community. Not being able to communicate with crews inside of a burning building, it puts us at a huge liability of hurting or killing someone.”
The system is also important for dispatchers like Meghan Kennedy-Brown. She’s been doing the job for more than 16 years.
“It’s like a pet or a child — if you can’t make sure that they’re safe, you get very stressed out,” she said. “Because our job is to make sure they’re safe and make sure they have the tools they need, and it’s like taking one of our tools away.”
Now the decision of whether or not to replace it will come down to voters. The new project requires fixing or replacing communication towers at a cost of around $25 million in total. So voters are only being asked to pay for about half of it. The other half is being paid for with federal grants, previous city appropriations and some sales tax funding.
According to the city, the mill rate isn’t expected to go up if the bond passes, because the city has the capacity to take on more debt right now. A portion of the mill rate is set aside for debt service and that money goes toward paying off bonds the city has taken on over the years.
According to a survey by KTOO, most candidates running for Assembly seats this election say they are in favor of the proposition passing. But several, like mayoral candidate Angela Rodell, said they don’t like the way the city wants to pay for it. She spoke about it at a public safety forum earlier this month.
“One of the things I’m very concerned about is why this bond issue is coming this year,” she said. “ Why it hasn’t come before now? To me, this is something that should have been taken care of a long time ago, and we need to focus on making sure that essential services are covered in current operating budgets.”
In light of a recent fatal shooting in Juneau involving police officers, people in the community have been calling for more transparency in the department.
JPD’s current radio system doesn’t let them encrypt their communications – that’s when the signal gets cut off to the general public. But Police Chief Derek Bos said the new system would.
“That doesn’t mean that everything would be encrypted, so that’s something we still would have to navigate as far as policies go, and when we would encrypt or when we wouldn’t, what that would look like,” Bos said.
JPD doesn’t have anything in its policies about encryption. But, Bos said he’d like to get something on the books before the new system goes live. That would happen through a public process with the Assembly.
“Encryption does have a significant value for law enforcement. A good example of that would be if we have an active shooter in a school,” he said. “We know nationally that the active shooters will listen to the scanners to see what the police are doing so that they can move away from the officers as we’re entering the school.”
The radio proposition is just one of three propositions on the ballot for this year’s municipal election. Ballots were sent to voters’ mailboxes on Thursday. Election Day is Oct. 1.
Find more local Juneau election coverage at ktoo.org/elections.
